Date: Sep 20, 2007

Giving Voice to Intellectual Freedom

Hofstra students, faculty to read from challenged books to mark national Banned Books Week

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra University Library will celebrate intellectual freedom during Banned Book Week with readings by students, faculty and community residents from books that have been challenged or banned from libraries and schools.

Hofstra will mark the national observance on Wednesday, October 3 from 11:15 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. on the main floor of the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, south campus.

Banned Book Week, which takes place September 29 through October 6, 2007, is a national observance coordinated each year since 1982 by the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom. It celebrates efforts to keep books freely accessible in U.S. schools and libraries and “reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.”

“Librarians, as a profession, have always stood for intellectual freedom and against censorship in its many forms,” said Daniel Rubey, Hofstra’s dean of Library and Information Services. “Banned Books Week offers us an opportunity to affirm the freedom of inquiry and expression that is at the heart of the academic experience at Hofstra University.” 

The most frequently challenged books over the years include the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s award-winning And Tango Makes Three, about two male penguins parenting an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple, was the most challenged book in 2006 due to the issues of homosexuality.

Anyone interesting in participating should contact Sarah McCleskey at (516) 463-5076 or Sarah.E.McCleskey@hofstra.edu. 

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from more than 140 undergraduate and 155 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, and a School of Law.